Obama and the Rogue Regime

Obama and the Rogue Regime by Ralph Nader on counterpunch.org

As President, he cannot remain silent and do nothing, otherwise he will inherit the war crimes of Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney and become soon thereafter a war criminal himself. Inaction cannot be an option.

Violating the Constitution and federal laws is now routine. What is routine after awhile becomes institutionalized lawlessness by official outlaws.

Mr. Nader, a lawyer himself, makes a very key point. Obama must act to reverse and prosecute the crimes of the Bush administration, or become a criminal himself.

With a site like CommonDreams, that bans people without giving any reason, its hard to know exactly what gets one banned. But one comment I have made there in the past is to ask when would we begin the "Impeach Obama" movement. Without saying so directly, that is exactly what Mr. Nader is saying. Obama will quickly become a criminal who should be impeached if he continues any of the crimes of the Bush administration or if he fails to prosecute known and clear violations of law.

This article is not on CommonDreams ... of course.

Obama Acts To Drive The Lobbyists Out of Washington

Obama Acts To Drive The Lobbyists Out of Washington by Leonard Doyle on CommonDreams.org

The leader of Barack Obama's transition team has delivered some bad news to the hordes of lobbyists plying their trade in the fancy restaurants and faceless offices along Pennsylvania Avenue: they are not welcome.

This one is a classic of why a site like CommonDreams needs an open comment policy. The headline is very misleading. Between it and the lead to the article, a reader would be very, very misled as to what's going on. And these days, when you go to CommonDreams, typical is the first comment that is pure Dem suck-up of saying this is a good first step.

More as a comment ....

March on Washington, Jan 20, 2009

I've seen a couple of references calling on people to march on Washington for Obama's inagural. For movements where Obama's policies differ from what the people who voted for him want, this seems like an important action to take.

While Obama is planning his surge in Afghanistan, and his slow drawdown that would follow the Bush plan in Iraq, let him at his inagural see mass crowds of people saying "Bring the Troops home, NOW".

The Democrats keep saying we have to push them not to be evil monsters as they rule. So, how do we push them? We know it won't be easy, as they ban us from their websites and try to push us back with riot police like here in Denver. But we still must push. This seems like a golden opportunity to begin.

March on Washington, Jan 20, 2009

What next for struggle in the Obama era?

What next for struggle in the Obama era? on socialistworker.org

SocialistWorker.org asks leading voices on the left--Howard Zinn, Mike Davis, Sharon Smith and others--about the prospects for our struggles in a new era.

Dems' Election Day Message: Our First Responsibility Is to Appease Republicans

Dems' Election Day Message: Our First Responsibility Is to Appease Republicans by David Sirota on Openleft.com

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) delivered Democrats' election-day message this morning on Fox News. Officially speaking for the Obama campaign, McCaskill told Fox that Barack Obama's first order of business as president is to appease Republicans and start filling his cabinet with them.

Can we talk about the real Obama now?

CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE REAL OBAMA NOW? by Sam Smith at prorev.com

Now the party is over and it's time for people to put away their Barack and Michelle dolls and start dealing with what has truly happened.

This, I admit, is difficult because the real Obama doesn't exist yet. He follows in the footsteps of our first postmodern president, Bill Clinton

...

There is one story from Chicago, however, that remains relevant. A citizen walks into his alderman's office looking for a job. "Who sent you?" he asks. "Nobody," he replies. Says the staffer: "We don't want nobody nobody sent."

Who sent Barack Obama remains a mystery. He has risen from an unknown state senator to president in exactly four years and that only happens when somebody sends for you.

Go read the whole article. I'm trying to keep the posts on this page short with a view snips to get the flavor of a piece. But this one has so many good bits that its hard to do that. Follow the link to go read the whole piece.

Anyone feel a draft in the air?

OBAMA PLANS DRAFT from Freedom Beat blog of the Progressive Review.

Obama Transition Team - Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year.

...

Rep. Rahm Emanuel wants to force people 18 to 25 to labor for the government. Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, President-Elect Barack Obama's choice for chief of staff in his incoming administration, is co-author of a book, The Plan: Big Ideas for America, that calls for, among other things, compulsory service for all Americans ages 18 to 25.

This was hinted at during the campaign. This article mainly refers back to some of those references. And of course, there was always the open question of how Obama was going to fulfill his promise of adding 90,000+ troops to the Army and the Marines in an era where recruitment was declining. Of course, the Republican\Democrat crash of the economy and the loss of 240,00 jobs in one month might take care of that for them.

The killing continues ...

Two articles, side by side on antiwar.com

U.S. military acknowledges dozens of Afghan civilian deaths in the past week, By M. Karim Faiez and Laura King on LATimes.com

The U.S. military acknowledged today that 37 civilians were killed and 35 injured during fighting this week in Kandahar province between insurgents and coalition forces.

Bush Expected to Recommend Obama Add Troops to Afghanistan by Jason Ditz on antiwar.com

With just over two months left in office, President Bush is hoping to add his voice to the calls for a military surge in Afghanistan, and will reportedly endorse General David McKiernan’s call for an increase in the number of troops in Afghanistan.

Of course, Obama has already promised to do a 'surge' in Afghanistan as soon as he's sworn in. So, that undoubtably means innocent civilians will keep dying. Gee, I'm so glad America voted for 'change'.

Open thread

Post links to interesting articles here.

Now that I've started this, unfortnately I have to be on the road for a bit. So I don't know how much I can put new stuff up here in the next few days. So, I'd encourage others to do so. Eventually, we'll have to figure out a way to let more than just me put new posts on here. But for now, just put links into a thread like this one. :) Long term, I want a community and what's interesting to that community, not just my idea of what are interesting articles.

One reason of course is because I have to work a day job, so this is at best a part time thing for me. I'm not like some other sites who get hundreds of thousands of dollars of subsidies, and thus can push party propaganda full time. So, to make this a more interesting site, it would be better if others could also post interesting articles up here.

BTW, welcome to everyone who's found this place. :)